Obama: ObamaCare is too Important to be Unconstitutional

Imagine asking the judge who just revoked your driver’s license if you’ll still be allowed to drive. Last month, Northern Florida Federal Judge Roger Vinson declared the individual mandate–the centerpiece of ObamaCare, also known as the Affordable Care Act–to be unconstitutional. And as Vinson ruled that the mandate could not be separated from the rest of the Act, the entire law was struck down.

Now never having attended law school means that, unlike attorneys, when it comes to thinking and decision making I’ve been reduced to a reliance upon common sense, common decency and a simple understanding of the difference between right and wrong. Of course, lawyers aren’t limited by such pedestrian restraints. So the same people who maintain that the Constitution is far too complex to be deciphered by anyone but a lawyer, are now claiming to not understand the meaning and consequences of the word “unconstitutional.”

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”Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void”, writes Judge Vinson in his opinion. And if this were not a plain enough declaration of his intent, Vinson tells interested parties why he considers injunctive relief unnecessary, stating “…there has been a long-standing presumption that officials of the Executive Branch will adhere to the law as declared by the court. As a result, the declaratory judgment is the functional equivalent of an injunction…There is no reason to conclude that this presumption should not apply here. Thus, the award of declaratory relief is adequate and separate injunctive relief is not necessary.”

So how does the Obama Regime respond? By having the Centers for Medicine and Medicare Services begin adding 650 employees to implement the plan; by continuing to issue waivers to select businesses and groups; by having the IRS go forward with the hiring of 1,000 new auditors and staffers and by including 465 million dollars in the White House budget submitted to Congress for the implementation of the law.

And to provide some slim measure of cover for the breathtaking exhibition of arrogance required to ignore the ruling of a federal court, on February 17th White House attorneys filed a “Motion to Clarify.” As the Heritage Foundation explains this remarkable bit of Democrat stagecraft, “the Administration has now stated officially that, notwithstanding the Judge’s declaration of the…Act…as unconstitutional, the Administration does not interpret the Judge’s order as REQUIRING the Administration to cease carrying out the unconstitutional ACA.” In the Motion, Obama’s attorneys write, “Given the wide-ranging and indeterminate consequences that would occur if the declaratory judgment were assumed to have immediate injunction-like effect…defendants do not interpret the Court’s order as requiring them to immediately cease operating programs…and enforcing duties by the ACA with regard to the plaintiff states…”

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In short, Judge Vinson, you know not what you do. Your ruling will screw up some really big kickbacks and rob us on the Left of the extraordinary power grab we’ve worked decades to achieve. So yeah…you’ve taken our drivers license, but we’re gonna be on the highway, anyway. Just try to stop us!